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British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was a television company, headquartered in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. They started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company was merged with
Sky Television plc The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...
on 2 November 1990 to form
British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...
.


History


Development

In January 1977, the
World Administrative Radio Conference The World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) was a technical conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) where delegates from member nations of the ITU met to revise or amend the entire international radio regulations pertaini ...
assigned each country five high-powered direct broadcast by satellite channels for domestic use. In 1982, after being awarded two of the channels, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
proposed its own satellite service, but the government imposed two conditions on it: * Use of a satellite built by United Satellite, a consortium of
British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marcon ...
and
Matra Marconi Space Matra Marconi Space (MMS) was a Franco-British aerospace company. History Matra Marconi Space was established in 1990 as a joint venture between the space and telecommunication divisions of the Lagardère Group ( Matra Espace) and the GEC ...
(now Airbus Defense and Space), with costs estimated at £24 million per year. * A supplementary charter was agreed in May 1983 which allowed the BBC to borrow up to £225 million to cover the cost of the project, as it was not allowed to call on public funds, nor use existing sources of revenue to fund the project.''Broadcasting and New Media Policies in Western Europe'', Kenneth H. F. Dyson, Peter Humphreys p.232 , 9780415005098 During Autumn 1983, the cost of Unisat was found to be greatly underestimated and the new
Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...
announced the three remaining channels would be given to the
Independent Broadcasting Authority The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television ( ITV and Channel 4 and limited satellite television regulation – cable television was the responsibility of the Cable Author ...
(IBA) to allow the private sector to compete against the BBC in satellite broadcasting. Within a few months, the BBC started talking with the IBA about a joint project to help cover the cost. Subsequently, the government allowed the IBA to bring in private companies to help cover the costs (dubbed as the "Club of 21"): *
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
– 50% *
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
franchises – 30% *
Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
/
Thorn EMI Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Comi ...
/ Granada TV Rental/
Pearson Longman Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in London, England, in 1724 and is owned by Pearson PLC. Since 1968, Longman has been used primarily as an imprint by Pearson's Schools business. The Longman brand is also ...
and Consolidated Satellite Broadcasting – 20% Within a year, the consortium made it clear that the original launch date of 1986 would be delayed to 1989, while also asking the government to allow them to tender out the building of the new satellite system to help reduce cost. On 15 June 1985, the project failed when consortium concluded that the cost of set-up was not justifiable. The BBC stated the costs were prohibitive because the government insisted that the "Club of 21" should pay for the costs of constructing and launching a dedicated satellite.


IBA satellite franchise

On 2 April 1986, the IBA convinced the
Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...
to revive the DBS project but under different conditions, broadly based on a report drawn up by John Jackson, by inviting the private-sector companies to apply for a new television franchise via satellite to provide a commercial service on the IBA's three DBS channels (of the five in total allocated to the United Kingdom). One of the conditions imposed on applicants by the IBA was that they use a new untried transmission standard,
D-MAC Among the family of MAC or Multiplexed Analogue Components systems for television broadcasting, D-MAC is a reduced bandwidth variant designed for transmission down cable. * The data is Bipolar encoding, duobinary coded with a data burst rate of ...
. This was part of the European Communities' support for the HD-MAC
high-definition television High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
standard which was being developed by
Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
and other European companies. The technology was still at the laboratory stage and was incompatible with previous standards: HD-MAC transmissions could not be received by existing television sets which used
PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
or
SECAM SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''color sequential with memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, some parts of Europe and Africa, and Russia. It was one of th ...
standards. The condition to use a high-power (230 watt) satellite was dropped, and no winner was precluded from buying a foreign satellite system. The IBA received five major contenders with serious bids for the
direct broadcast satellite Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
franchises. It also received submissions from
The Children's Channel The Children's Channel, also known as TCC, was a British-based pan-European children's television channel in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which was owned by Flextech in London, England, UK. It began broadcasting on the original Eutelsat ...
and ITN to make sure their programmes were used on any successful bid:


Winning bid

British Satellite Broadcasting won the 15-year franchise on 11 December 1986 to operate the DBS system, with a licence to operate three channels. BSB forecast 400,000 homes would be equipped during its first year, but some doubts were cast as to whether this was possible. The
Cable Authority The Cable Authority was the United Kingdom statutory body established by the Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 to regulate the newly liberalised cable television industry. It came into existence on 1 December 1984 and took on its functions with e ...
welcomed the service, believing it would encourage more users, especially with its dedicated movie network. The original four satellite channels were:


Preparations for launch

Around the time of the licence award,
Amstrad Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstra ...
withdrew its backing, as they believed it was not possible to sell a satellite dish and D-MAC standard receiver for £250. Australian businessman Alan Bond joined the consortium along with
Reed Elsevier RELX plc (pronounced "Rel-ex") is a British multinational information and analytics company headquartered in London, England. Its businesses provide scientific, technical and medical information and analytics; legal information and analytics; ...
,
Chargeurs Chargeurs Réunis (United Shippers) is a major French company formed in 1872. It is now known as Chargeurs (). Profile and management Chargeurs is a global, diversified group with leadership positions in niche markets, both in manufacturing and ...
,
Next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...
and
London Merchant Securities Derwent London is a British-based property investment and development business. It is headquartered in London and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The business was originally established as the operator of the Derwent Valley Lig ...
, amongst others. BSB earmarked the bulk of the first round of financing for buying and launching two satellites (for redundancy and provision of further channels later), and planned a second round close to the commencement of broadcasting operations. It commissioned the Hughes Aircraft Company to provide two high-powered satellites using launch vehicles from
McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it pro ...
(later
United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, ...
). Both companies were American and had established reputations for reliability. Hughes was the main contractor and offered a commercial space industry as the first "in-orbit delivery" on 6 August 1987, whereby BSB's risk was reduced because payments became due only after the satellites were launched and operational. On 8 June 1988, rival tycoon
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
– having failed to gain regulatory approval for his own satellite service to become part of the BSB consortium – announced that his
pan-European Pan-European can refer to: * Pan-European identity * Pan-European corridors ** Pan-European Corridor X ** Pan-European Corridor Xa * Pan European Game Information * Pan-European Institute * Pan-European nationalism * Pan-European Oil Pipeline ...
television station '' Sky Channel'', would be relaunched as a four-channel, United Kingdom-based service called Sky Television, using the Astra system and broadcast in
PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
with analogue sound. BSB had been aware of the impending launch of Astra when it submitted its proposal to the IBA in 1986, but had discounted it, partly on advice from the IBA that it would not have been possible for Sky to securely scramble an analogue PAL signal, and a prediction that satisfactory reception from a medium-powered satellite such as Astra would not be possible with a dish of under 1.2 metres, which would require individual planning permission for each customer.
Lazard Brothers Lazard Ltd (formerly known as Lazard Frères & Co.) is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It is the world's la ...
, the Pearson subsidiary responsible for BSB's first fundraising memorandum, reportedly regarded Astra as technology-led rather than programming-led and, therefore, an unlikely threat. The stage was set for a dramatic confrontation: BSB, expecting to be the United Kingdom's only satellite service, was faced with an aggressive drive by Murdoch's Sky to be the first service to launch. As Britain's official satellite television provider, BSB had high hopes as the company planned to provide a mixture of highbrow programming and popular entertainment, from arts and
opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
to blockbuster movies and
music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
s. The service would also be technically superior, broadcasting in the D-MAC (Multiplexed Analogue Components type D) system dictated by the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
regulations with potentially superior picture sharpness, digital stereo sound and the potential to show
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
programming; rather than the existing PAL system. BSB claimed that Sky's PAL pictures would be too degraded by satellite transmission, and that in any case, BSB would broadcast superior programming.
SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...
(later operators of the
O3b O3b is a satellite constellation in Medium Earth orbit (MEO) owned and operated by SES, and designed to provide low-latency broadband connectivity to remote locations for mobile network operators and internet service providers, maritime, avia ...
data satellites and others with names including
AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...
, Ciel, NSS, QuetzSat,
YahSat Al Yah Satellite Communications Company P.J.S.C. (Yahsat) is a public company listed on thAbu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX)and a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company PJSC, offering multi-mission satellite services in more than 150 countries ...
and
SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...
, and formerly at that time, the Astra TV satellite operator), had no regulatory permission to broadcast, had plans (initially) for only one satellite with no backup, and the European satellite launch vehicle '' Ariane'' suffered repeated failures. However, SES used the resulting delay time to re-engineer the satellite to reduce the dish size needed, which would otherwise have been larger than 60 cm (24"). To distance itself from Sky and its dish antennas, BSB announced a new type of flat-plate satellite antenna called a "
squarial The Squarial (a portmanteau of the words ''square'' and '' aerial'') was a satellite antenna used for reception of the now defunct British Satellite Broadcasting television service (BSB). The Squarial was a flat plate satellite antenna, built to ...
" (i.e., "square aerial"). The illustrative model shown to the press was a dummy and BSB commissioned a working version which was under 45 cm (18") wide. A conventional dish of the same diameter was also available. The company had serious technical problems with the development of ITT's D-MAC silicon chips needed for its MAC receivers. BSB was still hoping to launch in September 1989, but eventually had to admit that the launch would be delayed. By 22 July 1988 in a bid to gain more viewers, BSB and the BBC prepared a bid for a four-year deal for the rights to broadcast top league football, outbidding ITV's £44 million offer. BSB had also committed about £400 million to tying up the film libraries of
Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
,
Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...
, Columbia and
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
/
United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...
, with total up-front payments of about £85 million. On 1 February 1989, BSB's costs had started to climb, reaching £354 million, while chief executive Anthony Simonds-Gooding denied that BSB had gone over budget and would require more than the planned £625 million it required to operate up to 1993. Virgin pulled out of the BSB consortium in December 1988, ostensibly because it was going private again and become increasingly concerned about BSB's mounting costs. The film-rights battle proved to be the final straw for Virgin, since it would necessitate a "supplementary first round" of financing of £131 million in January earlier that year in addition to the initial £222.5 million. After unsuccessfully offering its stake in BSB to the remaining founders, Virgin sold it to the
Bond Corporation Alan Bond (22 April 1938 – 5 June 2015) was an English-born Australian businessman noted for his high-profile and often corrupt business dealings. These included his central role in the WA Inc scandals of the 1980s, and what was at the time ...
, already BSB's largest shareholder for a nominal profit. Despite the delayed launch, BSB continued to invest heavily in marketing in 1989 to minimize the effects of Sky's timing advantage. BSB also received a needed boost in June 1989 when it won the franchises for the two remaining British high-powered DBS channels, beating six other bidders when the BBC dropped all plans for use of its allocated channels. BSB revised its line-up to include separate channels for films, sports, pop music, general entertainment and current affairs. Unfortunately, this increased the size of the dishes which the public had to purchase from 25 to 35–40 centimetres; subsidies from BSB helped maintain retail prices at £250.


Launch of five-channel service

There were five satellite channels for the general public with a sixth part-time service on subscription for business users, as BSB Datavision was a subsidiary of the company which offered encrypted television sets and data reception through domestic receivers.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
 BSB's channel line-up launched over five consecutive days in one at a time was: BSB launched its service on cable 25 March 1990 and on satellite at the end of April, with the slogan ''It's Smart to be Square''. The launch, six months late, came 13 months after
Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...
's launch. BSB was due to start broadcasting in September 1989 but was delayed by problems with the supply of receiving equipment and because BSB wanted to avoid Sky's experience of launching when most shops had no equipment to sell. BSB claimed to have around 750,000 subscriptions while Sky had extended its reach into more than 1.5 million homes. It was believed both companies could break even if subscriptions reached three million households, with most analysts expecting this to be reached in 1992.


Competition and merger

Sky's head start over BSB proved that the PAL system would give adequate picture quality, and that many viewers would be happy to watch Sky's more populist output as opposed to waiting for the promised quality programming pledged by BSB. Sky had launched its multichannel service from studios at an industrial estate in Isleworth, with a ten-year lease on
SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...
transponders for an estimated £50 million without backup. BSB on the other hand, would operate from more expensive headquarters at
Marco Polo House Marco Polo House (originally stylised as "Marcopolo") was a large marble-effect, glass-clad office building and TV studio at 346 Queenstown Road, facing Battersea Park in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was built in 1987–1988 and complete ...
in Battersea, with construction and launch of its own satellites costing an estimated £200 million as the second of which was a backup. When BSB finally went on air in March 1990 (13 months after Sky), the company's technical problems were resolved and its programming was critically acclaimed. However, its D-MAC receivers were more expensive than Sky's PAL equivalents and incompatible with them. Many potential customers compared the competition between the rival satellite companies to the
format war A format war is a competition between similar but mutually incompatible technical standards that compete for the same market, such as for data storage devices and recording formats for electronic media. It is often characterized by political an ...
between VHS and Betamax recorders, and chose to wait and see which company would win outright in order to avoid buying potentially obsolete equipment. Both BSB and Sky had begun to struggle with the burden of huge losses, rapidly increasing debts and ongoing startup costs. On 2 November 1990, a 50:50 merger was announced to form a single company called
British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...
(marketed as "Sky"). Following the merger, BSkyB moved quickly to rationalise the combined channels it now owned:


Outcomes

BSB's shareholders and Murdoch's News International made huge profits on their investments, the 50:50 merged venture having an effective quasi-monopoly on British satellite pay-television. From a United Kingdom perspective, British Satellite Broadcasting's existence prevented 100% of these profits being made by News International, reducing Murdoch's ability to influence government policy. At one stage of the saga, News International was facing dismemberment at the hands of its bankers.New York Times, 20 December 1990; ''Murdoch's Time of Reckoning'' Following the takeover of Sky by Comcast in October 2018, Murdoch was no longer involved in British television but retained his newspaper assets through News Corp.


Satellites

As the company focused on the Astra system which was not subject to IBA regulation, the Marcopolo satellites were eventually withdrawn and later sold (Marcopolo 1 on 21 December 1993 to
NSAB In Mandaeism, Nṣab ( myz, ࡍࡑࡀࡁ, lit=Plant) is an uthra (angel or guardian). He is also called Nṣab Rba ("the Great Nṣab") or Nṣab Ziwa ("the Radiant Nṣab" or "Splendid Plant"). Nṣab and Anan-Nṣab ('cloud of Nṣab', a female ...
of Sweden and Marcopolo 2 on 1 July 1992 to Telenor of Norway) within the former satellites were renamed
Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...
. NSAB operated Marcopolo 1 (as Sirius 1) until successfully sending it to a safe
disposal orbit A graveyard orbit, also called a junk orbit or disposal orbit, is an orbit that lies away from common operational orbits. One significant graveyard orbit is a supersynchronous orbit well beyond geosynchronous orbit. Some satellites are moved into ...
in 2003 as it reached the normal end of its operational life when fuel ran out. Marcopolo 2 was operated (as Thor 1) until January 2002 and disposed successfully.


Regulatory context

A new television transmission system,
Multiplexed Analogue Components Multiplexed Analogue Components (MAC) was an analog television standard where luminance and chrominance components were transmitted separately. This was an evolution from older color TV systems (such as PAL or SECAM) where there was interferen ...
, was originally developed for high-definition television but European manufacturers developed patented variants and successfully lobbied regulators such that it was adopted by the
Commission of the European Communities The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
as the standard for all direct broadcast satellites. This had the effect that the low-cost non-European manufacturers would not only have to pay royalties to the manufacturers, but would also not have direct access to the technology, and hence would always be behind with new developments. In the United Kingdom, the
Independent Broadcasting Authority The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television ( ITV and Channel 4 and limited satellite television regulation – cable television was the responsibility of the Cable Author ...
developed a variant,
D-MAC Among the family of MAC or Multiplexed Analogue Components systems for television broadcasting, D-MAC is a reduced bandwidth variant designed for transmission down cable. * The data is Bipolar encoding, duobinary coded with a data burst rate of ...
, which had marginal audio channel improvements, and insisted on its use by the satellite service to be licensed by itself. In the rest of Europe, satellite television manufacturers standardised on another variant,
D2-MAC D2-MAC is a satellite television transmission standard, a member of Multiplexed Analogue Components family. It was created to solve D-MAC's bandwidth problem on European cable systems. * D2-MAC uses half the data rate of D-MAC * D2-MAC has a re ...
, which used less bandwidth and was compatible with the extensive existing European cable systems. With the launch of BSB, the IBA became a member of the secret "MAC Club" of European organisations which owned patents on MAC variants and had a royalty sharing agreement for all television and set top boxes sold. The IBA was not directed to be an "economic regulator", so the free market in lower power satellite bandwidth satellites (such as
SES Astra SES Astra SA was a corporate subsidiary of SES, based in Betzdorf, in eastern Luxembourg, that maintained and operated the Astra series of geostationary communication satellites between 2001 and 2011. Formed in 1985 as Société Européenne de ...
) leveraged the benefits of the existing lower cost
PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
transmissions with pre-existing set-top box technology. The IBA was rendered helpless and Murdoch made a voluntary agreement to adhere to those
Broadcasting Standards Commission The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
rules relating to non-economic matters, such as the technology used. Ironically the past-deadline encryption system in the D-MAC silicon chip technology was one primary reason for BSB having to merge with Sky, and hence the Far Eastern television manufacturers had largely unfettered access to the market when MAC was wound down in favour of PAL. After the merger, BSB D-MAC receivers were sold off cheaply and some enthusiasts modified them to allow reception of
D2-MAC D2-MAC is a satellite television transmission standard, a member of Multiplexed Analogue Components family. It was created to solve D-MAC's bandwidth problem on European cable systems. * D2-MAC uses half the data rate of D-MAC * D2-MAC has a re ...
services available on other satellites. BSB receivers, Ferguson in particular, could be modified by replacing a microprocessor. Upgrade kits from companies such as Trac Satellite allowed re-tuning whilst other kits allowed fully working menu systems and decoding of 'soft' encrypted channels, although this required the receiver to have one of the later MAC chipsets. Some kits even included smart card readers and full D2-MAC decoding capability.


Location

Marco Polo House Marco Polo House (originally stylised as "Marcopolo") was a large marble-effect, glass-clad office building and TV studio at 346 Queenstown Road, facing Battersea Park in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was built in 1987–1988 and complete ...
(originally stylised as "Marcopolo") was a large marble-effect, glass-clad office building at 346 Queenstown Road, facing
Battersea Park Battersea Park is a 200-acre (83-hectare) green space at Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth in London. It is situated on the south bank of the River Thames opposite Chelsea and was opened in 1858. The park occupies marshland recla ...
in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was built in 1987–1988 and completed in 1989 by Peter Argyrou Associates at a cost of £26 million. The headquarters were vacated, leading to redundancy for most BSB staff with only a few moving to work at Sky Television's studios in Isleworth. The building was retained by the new company and from 1 October 1993 became the home of shopping channel
QVC QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network, and flagship shopping channel specializing in televised home shopping, owned by Qurate Retail Group. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Chester, Pen ...
when its British version launched. Broadcasting platform
ITV Digital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners ...
also moved into part of the building as part of the settlement that saw Sky forced out of the original company before went into administration on 27 March 2002. The building was demolished in March 2014; it has been replaced by several blocks of luxury apartments in
Chelsea Bridge Chelsea Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames in west London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south bank, and split between the City of Westminster, the London Borough of Wandsworth and the Royal Borough of Kens ...
.


Sources


Further reading

* New York Times, 20 December 1990; ''Murdoch's Time of Reckoning'' *
Peter Chippindale Peter Chippindale (4 July 1945 – 10 August 2014) was a British newspaper journalist and author. He was born to Keith and Ruth Chippindale in Northern India, where his father was a captain in the 11th Sikh regiment. As a child he attended Sedber ...
, Suzanne Franks and Roma Felstein, ''Dished!: Rise and Fall of British Satellite Broadcasting'', (London: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 1991). * ''Broadcasting and New Media Policies in Western Europe'' Kenneth H. F. Dyson, Peter Humphreys , 9780415005098


References


External links

* * * {{Authority control Sky Group Defunct mass media companies of the United Kingdom Mass media companies established in 1986 Mass media companies disestablished in 1990 British companies established in 1986 British companies disestablished in 1990 1990 mergers and acquisitions Direct broadcast satellite services 1980s in the United Kingdom 1980s in British television 1990s in the United Kingdom 1990s in British television 1990 in the United Kingdom 1990 in British television History of television in the United Kingdom